you had stayed the night at Alan’s place, innocently playing a board game and watching a movie just to find yourself in his bed, never felt more comfortable in disguised in his sheets. He was still sleep, soundless and peaceful, his hair a disgruntled mess, getting a good rest since last night. You decided to explore the house, you looked at a bunch of things, the mostly clean kitchen, plain but nice living room, you heard him coming down the hall, awake now, you hid by the couch, sitting down. He walked over, rubbing his eyes and trying to fix his hair, wearing only boxers now. He was drunker than high school, self-conscious and sweet. You felt bad, you were just a constant headache, a tooth out of line. Always a pain, detentions left to right, parents least favorite. But now you were pretending to sleep, for some reason scared for him to find you up. He smiled and leaned against the doorway, watching you ‘sleep’ and saying such nice things. You felt guilty and cheap, because you could never amount to the people he use to date, who were better than you in every way, but for some reason he loved you more. He went into the kitchen, staring at the sink of dishes, tired but knowing he has to clean… he shrugged it off and went back to the living room, sitting on the couch next to you, careful not to wake you up. He adjusted you to lay against his back as he was on his side, propping his elbow to keep him up. Nobody ever really liked you much, except him. His love was foreign to you, made you think maybe being human wasn’t such a bad thing… but you laid there in protest, entirely fucked. Reminded that one perfect nights not enough, everything would go back to normal, detention after detention, parents arguing, Alan was your only safe place